Pages

Friday, March 25, 2011

Book Blogger Hop 4

This week's question is: If you could physically put yourself into a book or series... which one would it be and why?

Easy peasy! I'd go to Hogwarts, of course! I'm still convinced there's been some kind of mix-up. I should have gotten my owl with letter of acceptance for Hogwarts ages ago! (Never mind that as an American, I'd probably be more likely to end up at the Salem Witches Institute.) I can't wait to hang out in the underwater common room in Slytherin. I guess I'll have to settle for the next best thing for now...

Apologies in advance for my answer this week as it will not immediately resonate with the book blogger population which happens to be 99.5% female.

My choice is a book series geared towards guys which won’t enthrall the vast majority of my fellow book bloggers (who are almost entirely female) with the extensive discussion of powerful weapons and sexy milspec gear, beautiful women, eye-popping action sequences (with occasionally obscene violence), and the like.

But there IS something in my answer that just about everyone of the female persuasion can benefit from my decidedly “books for guys” post. Hop on over to http://www.howardsherman.net to find out what it is.

I can't quite put my finger on it, Howard, but there's a lot in your response that strikes me as creepy.

I have no doubt that the majority of book bloggers (just like the majority of social media users) are female, but where did you get that statistic from?

Why do you assume that ALL female bloggers will find your recommendation boring? It's true that thrillers are mostly read by men, but I'm sure there are voracious readers of either gender who might be interested in this book.

Maybe it's because I'm a librarian by profession, but I pride myself on being knowledgeable about many different genres. If I was going to booktalk Richard Marcinko's Rogue Warrior series, I might say something like:

"If you liked Tom Clancy or Brad Thor, you will love this little-known series! Although it's a fictionalized biography, Vietnam vet Marcinko actually served time in prison for revealing state secrets in this book! Check it out, you'll learn a lot about the Vietnam War from a real insider."

Your assertion that the "something" everyone of a female persuasion will get out of this, is something that they can give to their husbands, boyfriends, male co-workers, etc., to read, comes across as condescending at best.